Germany: Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information order against initiating lawsuit relating to Meta's training of Artificial Intelligence models with user data

On 27 May 2025, the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HmbBfDI), in agreement with the German data protection supervisory authorities, decided against initiating provisional proceedings to prohibit Meta from training its Artificial Intelligence (AI) models using social network user data. The decision, which considered the final ruling by the Cologne Higher Regional Court issued on 23 May 2025, aims to ensure a consistent European approach among data protection supervisory authorities. The HmbBfDI determined that an isolated urgency procedure for Germany would not be a suitable instrument for resolving existing assessment differences across Europe, in view of the planned evaluation of Meta's approach by the EU supervisory authorities.